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WEBSTER'S 
S)^| FIRST BUNKER HILL 
^ ORATION 



i 



THESILVEPf^SERlES OF 
ENGLISH CLASSICS 



« -ff< -fev 



EDITED BY — 

ALEXANDER S.TWOABLY 

noocoaoaoc 



STUDIES IN ENGLISH CLASSICS. 



SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. 

EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY 

HOMER B. SPRAGUE, Ph.D. 

The Merchant of Venice. As Vou Like It. 

Macbeth. The Tempest. 

Hamlet. A Midsummer Night's 
Julius CiEsar. Dream. 

/// Uniform Edition, hy the same Editor: 

THE LADY OF THE LAKE. By Sir Walter Scorr. 
THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. By Oliver Goldsmith. 

Introductory Prices. 

Bound in cloth .... 48- cents. 
Bound in paper . . . .30 cents. 



SELECT MINOR POEMS OF MILTON. 

Edited by James E. Thomas, B.A., Teacher of English in the Boys' English 
High School, Boston. Cloth, 48 cents; paper, 30 cents. 

I RV I NO'S SKETCH BOOK. 

Edited by James Chalmers, Ph.D., President of the State Normal School, 
Platteville, Wis. Cloth, 60 cents. 

SELECT ENGLISH CLASSICS. 

Selected and Edited, with Notes, by James Baldwin, Ph.D. Four volumes 
now ready: "Six Centuries of English Poetry," "The Famous Alle- 
gories," "The Book of Elegies," "Choice English Lyrics." i2mo, 
cloth, 72 cents each. 

The special attention of teachers is invited to these choice editions, with a view 
to introduction into their classes and schools. 

SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY, Publishers, 

BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO. 




DANIEL WEBSTER. 



The Silver Series of English Classics 

_ 

DANIEL WEBSTER'S 
FIRST ORATION AT BUNKER HILL 

JUNE 17, 1825 

WITH 

INTRODUCTION, LIST OF MASTERPIECES 

AND NOTES 

BY /' 

ALEXANDER S. TWOMBLY 







SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 

New York BOSTON Chicago 

1897 






42817 

Copyright, 1897, 
By silver, BURDETT & COMPANY. 



NorfajooK ^ress 

J. S. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Stnith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 



The Silver Series of English Classics is designed to fur- 
nish editions of many of the standard classics in English and 
American literature, in the best possible form for reading and 
study. While planned to meet the requirements for entrance 
examinations to college, as formulated by the Commission of 
American Colleges, it serves a no less important purpose in pro- 
viding valuable and attractive reading for the use of the higher 
grades of public and private schools. 

It is now generally recognized that to familiarize students with 
the masterpieces of literature is the best means of developing true 
literary taste, and of establishing a love of good reading which will 
be a permanent delight. The habit of cultured original expression 
is also established through the influence of such study. 

To these ends, carefully edited and annotated editions of the 
Classics, which shall direct pupils in making intelligent and appre- 
ciative study of each work as a whole, and, specifically, of its indi- 
vidual features, are essential in the classroom. 

The Silver Series notably meets this need, through the edit- 
ing of its volumes by scholars of high literary ability and educa- 
tional experience. It unfolds the treasures of literary art, and 
shows the power and beauty of our language in the various forms 
of English composition, — as the oration, the essay, the argument, 
the biography, the poem, etc. 

Thus, the first volume contains Webster's oration at the laying 
of the corner stone of Bunker Hill monument ; and, after a brief 
sketch of the orator's life, the oration is defined, — the speech itself 
furnishing a practical example of what a masterpiece in oratory 
should be. 

Next follows the essay, as exemplified by Macaulay's " Essay on 
Milton." The story of the life of the great essayist creates an 
interest in his work, and the student, before he proceeds to study 

' 3 



4 PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCEMENT. . 

the essay, is shown in the Introduction the difference between the 
oratorical and the essayistic style. 

After this, Burke's " Speech on Conciliation " is treated in a 
similar manner, the essential principles of forensic authorship 
being set forth. 

Again, De Quincey's " Flight of a Tartar Tribe " — a conspic- 
uous example of pure narration — exhibits the character and qual- 
ity of this department of literary composition. 

Southey's " Life of Nelson " is presented in the same personal 
and critical manner, placing 'before the student the essential char- 
acteristics of the biographical style. 

The series continues with specimens of such works as " The 
Rime of the Ancient Mariner," by Coleridge ; the " Essay on 
Burns," by Carlyle ; the " Sir Roger De Coverley Papers," by Addi- 
son; Milton's "Paradise Lost," Books L and 11. ; Pope's " Iliad," 
Books I., VL, XXIL, and XXIV. ; Dryden's " Palamon and Ar- 
cite," and other works of equally eminent writers, covering, in the 
completed series, a large and diversified area of literary exposition. 

The functions of the several departments of authorship are 
explained in simple terms. The beginner, as well as the some- 
what advanced scholar, will find in this series ample instruction 
and guidance for his own study, without being perplexed by 
abstruse or doubtful problems. 

With the same thoughtfulness for the student's progress, the 
appended Notes provide considerable information outright ; but 
they are also designed to stimulate the student in making re- 
searches for himself, as well as in applying, under the direction of 
the teacher, the principles laid down in the critical examination 
of the separate divisions. 

A portrait, either of the author or of the personage about whom 
he writes, will form an attractive feature of each volume. The text 
is from approved editions, keeping as far as possible the original 
form ; and the contents offer, at a very reasonable price, the latest 
results of critical instruction in the art of literary expression. 

The teacher will appreciate the fact that enough, and not too 
much, assistance is rendered the student, leaving the instructor 
ample room for applying and extending the principles and sug- 
gestions which have been presented. 



INTRODUCTION. 



One of the masterpieces in oratory is the speech of 
Daniel Webster, delivered at the laying of the corner stone 
of Bunker Hill Monument, on the 17th of June, 1825, at 
Charlestown, Massachusetts, under the auspices of the 
Bunker Hill Monument Association, of which he was presi- 
dent. 

This oration is now edited and annotated in a new form, 
for the following reasons : — 

In order that the youth of our land may know something 
of the life of the great orator ; that they may understand the 
conditions which made the speech especially memorable; 
and that they may be assisted in analyzing the various 
elements in the speech which combine to make it a model 
of oratorical art. 

The modern requirements for scholarship have raised the 
standard for entrance examiuations of our colleges, so that 
more attention than formerly is paid to the English classics 
in our preparatory schools, whether these schools fit stu- 
dents for college or for industrial and other occupations. 
Literature is one of the fine arts, and as such the new edu- 
cation demands that the best models be set before the pu- 
pils. Great orations are among the most effective means by 
which the princi]3les that underlie the literary art may be 

5 



6 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

taught. They bring the personality of the speaker vividly 
before the mind, and connect his utterances with the forma- 
tive influences which have developed his power. His strong 
or impassioned sentences are read as if the man himself 
were present, a living witness and an exponent of great 
ideas. Spoken words are direct and forceful, intended to 
impress a present auditory ; they are necessarily brief, and 
give play to the working of emotion both in the speaker 
and in his hearers. Abstractions and involved sentences 
are out of place ; it is by the ear rather than the eye, that 
the thoughts which inspire the speaker are transmitted to 
the hearer. Although an oration, printed in a book, must 
be read, it conveys to the mind of the reader a sense of that 
mysterious influence which flows from the lips of one who, 
in speaking, vivifies by the voice the sentiments he utters. 
America has given many noble orators to the world. 
Among them Webster stands foremost in all the essentials 
of oratory. As England has but one Burke, so America has 
as yet but one Webster. His immortal utterances will abide 
as long as the nation endures. 

I. 

Our first study is of the orator himself. 

Daniel Webster, advocate, senator, statesman, whom Car- 
lyle called " a parliamentary Hercules," and whom Everett 
has compared with Burke for political truth and practical 
wisdom, was born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, January 18, 
1782, the last year of the Revolutionary War. His father, 



INTRODUCTION. < 

Ezekiel Webster, was a captain in the Seven Years' War, 
and. at the time of Daniel's birth cultivated a farm, which 
he had literally wrung from the wilderness, on the very 
outskirts of civilization. 

The boy grew up amid hardships and labors, which made 
an abiding impression upon his susceptible mind. With his 
brother Ezekiel he worked in the fields; attended school two 
or three months in the winter, and from the scanty village 
library obtained a moderate supply of good reading. 

As he showed a desire for learning, his father, at con- 
siderable pecuniary sacrifice, sent him to Exeter Academy 
in 1796, where he remained but a few months. Afterwards, 
studying with the Eev. Samuel Wood of Boscawen, New 
Hampshire, he completed his preparation for college, and, 
being graduated at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New 
Hampshire, in 1801, entered the office of Mr. Thompson, 
his father's next-door neighbor, as a student of law. Dur- 
ing an interval of study in this office he taught school at 
Fryeburg, borrowed Blackstone's Commentaries, and read 
them for the first time. He also committed to memory 
Mr. Ames's celebrated speech on the British Treaty. 

In 1804 young Webster took up. his residence in Boston, 
and pursued his law studies in the office of Hon. Christo- 
pher Gore; a fortunate selection, as Mr. Gore was a lawyer 
of eminence, a statesman, and a gentleman of the old 
school, who afterwards became Governor of Massachusetts. 

Removing to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1807, Mr. 
Webster practiced his profession in that aristocratic old 
town for nine years. With a native genius for pleading, 



8 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

and a good knowledge of law obtained by ceaseless indus- 
try, lie was retained in nearly every important case before 
the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and divided the 
honors with the famous jurist Jeremiah Mason, often his 
legal opponent but always his friend. The eulogy which 
Webster pronounced on this distinguished man is an en- 
during monument to the character and attainments of the 
one, and to the oratorical ability of the other. 

War was declared against England by the United States 
in 1812, and the next year Webster took his seat in the 
Thirteenth Congress, as a member of the House. He was 
placed by Henry Clay on the Committee of Foreign 
Affairs. On the 10th of June, 1813, he delivered his 
maiden speech, having already moved a series of resolu- 
tions of inquiry relative to the repeal of the Berlin and 
Milan Decrees. The speech took the House by surprise, 
so great was the amount of historical knowledge and illus- 
trative ability displayed. 

In August, 1814, Webster was reelected to Congress. 
The great service rendered by him in this Fourteenth Con- 
gress was the procuring of the adoption of the Specie 
Resolution, the result of which was the restoration to a 
sound basis of the currency of the country and the estab- 
lishment of a uniform circulating medium. In the fall 
of 1816, he again became a resident of Boston, which city 
he made his home until he died. 

Webster's famous sx3eeches date from this time. In 
1818 he argued the case of the State of New Hampshire 
vs. Dartmouth College, claiming that the college was an 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

eleemosynary institution, over which the state had no con- 
trol, and settling the legal doctrine that no legislature can 
set aside a contract made between a government and a 
corporation. When he had finished his plea, he had won 
for himself a place beside the first jurists of the land. 
Law and logic were rendered irresistible by his argument, 
and by the pathos of his appeal many of his auditors were 
melted to tears. 

Other great cases in civil and criminal suits — the Knapp 
trial being a conspicuous example of the latter — became 
causes cel^bres, overshadowed perhaps by speeches on larger 
themes, such as the Oration at the Centennial Anniversary 
at Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 22, 1820; the dis- 
course at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill 
Monument, June 17, 1825; the Eulogy on Adams and 
Jefferson, both of whom died on the same day, July 4, 
1826; the Eulogy on Washington, February 22, 1832; the 
Eeply to Hayne, January 26, 1830; the Eeply to Calhoun, 
February 16, 1833; the Seventh of March Speech, 1850, 
on the Compromises of the Constitution; and the address 
at the laying of the corner stone of the new wing of the 
Capitol at Washington, July 4, 1851. 

These speeches (a fuller list being given at the end of 
this Introduction) are among the masterpieces of oratory 
in the English tongue, which will remain the monu- 
ments of his genius as long as English literature shall 
endure. 

"It is quite evident," says one of his biographers, "that 
Mr. Webster matured rather slowly ; that his efforts before 



10 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

the age of fifty were his most popular because the most 
impassioned efforts"; but the later speeches, though not 
so striking to superficial hearers, are the most finished of 
all the productions of his tongue and pen. 

Mr. Webster was elected a senator of the United States 
in 1827. His speech in reply to Hayne, in January, 
1830, was delivered in the Senate Chamber at Washing- 
ton, before an immense crowd which filled the galleries, 
the floor, and even the lobbies of the hall. There was no 
tremulousness in his voice or manner as he rose to ad- 
dress the audience, although the attack by the senator 
from South Carolina, on a previous day, was character- 
ized by severity, not to say bitterness. "The Miltonic 
grandeur of his words," says one who listened to him, 
"was the fit expression of his thought," and when he 
uttered the immortal words " Liberty and Union, now and 
forever, one and inseparable," the audience retained their 
position, unconscious of the close, and forgetful of all 
but the orator's presence and words. The great picture 
in Faneuil Hall, Boston, by Healy, represents the scene, 
as Webster stands serene and victorious, vindicating the 
honor of his native New England and the majesty of the 
Constitution of the United States. 

He was made Secretary of State by President Harrison, 
in 1841, and while in office conferred incalculable benefits 
upon the country. The peculiar difficulties in the settle- 
ment of the Northeastern Boundary question with England 
were happily overcome; controversies of fifty years' stand- 
ing were terminated, and peace was preserved on honor- 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

able terms. In 1845 Mr. Webster took his seat as the 
successor of Eufus Choate in the Senate, and was instru- 
mental in adjusting tlie negotiation for the acquisition 
by the United States of Oregon, with the 49th parallel as 
the northern boundary. The United States claimed that 
territory by right of discovery, Captain Eobert Gray hav- 
ing made the discovery and having named the river 
which he entered, the Columbia, after his ship Cohimbia. 

A crisis having arrived, in the opinion of Webster, 
between the North and the South, on the subject of slav- 
ery, the great statesman, in his desire to find a basis on 
which the two sections would be willing to stand together, 
on the 7th of March, 1850, in his masterly speech in the 
Senate, on the Compromises of the Constitution, "em- 
barked," to use his own phrase, "on a stormy sea"; 
"but," he continued, "should disaster ensue, there would 
be but one life lost." Metaphorically speaking, his pre- 
diction was fulfilled, because by that speech his chance 
for election to the presidency of the United States was 
lost. 

The compromise which he advocated aroused much dis- 
sent, and popular feeling ran strongly against him at the 
North; but who can say that even the loss of this highest 
gift in the power of the people to bestow has detracted 
from Webster's fame as America's greatest orator, most 
profound constitutional lawyer, and most devoted patriotic 
defender? His watchwords, "Our country, our whole 
country, and nothing but our country," ^' Thank God! I 
also am an American," and "Liberty and Union, now and 



12 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

forever, one and inseparable, " will ever remain to quicken 
the patriotic pulse of the nation, and his life, as statesman, 
orator, and patriot, will ever stand forth an example of 
colossal genius, devoted to the honor of country and to 
the good of mankind. 

Mr. Webster was again made Secretary of State, by 
President Fillmore, on the death of President Taylor in 
1850. His last noble effort, on laying the corner stone of 
the new wing of the Capitol at Washington, was worthy 
of his fame. The main object of his public life was "to 
confirm and maintain the great work of the constitutional 
fathers of the last generation." 

He died in 1852, at Marshfield, Massachusetts, on the 
estate which reminded him of the early years in which 
he tilled the ancestral acres, and his last words, " I still 
live," as they vibrate down the ages, will suggest the 
imperishable influence for good, in his public speeches 
and acts, which is his legacy to the world. 

II- 

The conditions, which made the first speech of Webster 
at Bunker Hill especially memorable, will now be con- 
sidered. 

"The first monument ever erected to commemorate the 
Battle of Bunker Hill, was the monument specially erected 
to the memory of General Warren and those who fell at 
Bunker Hill." (This has sometimes been mistaken for 
the Beacon Hill monument in Boston.) It "was erected 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

by King Solomon's Lodge of Freemasons, of Charlestown, 
completed and dedicated in 1794. This monument stood 
on the westerly side of the present monument, and re- 
mained until 1825." (Proceedings of Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment Association, June 17, 1889.) 

But as the half-century from the date of the battle 
drew to its close, a strong feeling for a better memorial 
of that first contest in the Kevolutionary War began to 
be awakened. 

The society called the Bunker Hill Monument Associa- 
tion had been formed, and exists to this day. Funds 
were collected for the erection of a monument, and Daniel 
Webster, the president of the Association, was chosen to 
deliver the oration at the laying of the corner stone. 
General Lafayette was invited to be present on the 
occasion. 

It was an event towards which the nation looked for- 
ward with pride and high anticipation. Much was ex- 
pected from the foremost orator of the land, who would 
utter befitting words in the presence of the noble foreign 
guest, whose service and that of his native France 
had been so helpful to the colonies in their day of 
peril. 

Everything past and present concurred in making this 
an occasion on which the orator might feel the profound- 
est emotion, and be moved by the loftiest inspiration. 
The subject itself, the first battle for independence, might 
well call forth all his descriptive powers. The surviving 
veterans of the war would give an opportunity for pathetic 



14 DANIEL WEBSTER. 



iliil re? 

baiiuers 

Abov' 

at liis ' 
iuthe 



reminiscences and deserved eulogy. The progress of th 
Eepublic in the half-century afforded a theme for th 
eloquence of thankfulness; the memory of Warren wsa 
still fresh in the minds and hearts of his countrymen 
the stability and value of popular government had beei 
subjected to various tests, which had strengthened the 
national integrity. 

Europe had emerged from contests which, in manyj 
respects, had improved the condition of the people, and| 
for a brief period nearly the whole civilized world was a.-i" 
peace. The Spanish colonies of South America had b(:gun 
their national existence as independent states; unaer 
rapidly increasing knowledge, the- people everywhere were 
thinking and reasoning about affairs of state. The United 
States, then consisting of twenty-four commonwealths, 
looked forward to the development of vast material 
resources and to a career of unexampled prosperity. 
"Wisdom, Peace, and Liberty" were invoked, to lead the 
land in. its onward march towards a commanding posi- 
tion of influence and power among the proudest nations 
of the earth. 

Again, the celebration itself and all the attendant cir- 
cumstances were such as contributed in no slight degree 
to the orator's success. The assembled multitudes were 
ready to be moved by his words, and to applaud his 
patriotic sentiments. The air was cool, the sky clear, 
and nature was bright with her loveliest hues. Nothing 
in New England's history had equaled the magnificence 
of the military display, the Masonic orders in their splen- li[\^ 



fervor 
afldst 
desire 
iter, f 
cpti\ 
iuowii 
^'ot 

climb 
granil 
betwe 
oratoi 
tliats 
Msi 
tliec 

WOllli 

H( 
alai 
lated 
proj( 



Wsofti 
eiiie foi 

barren 



JNTKODUCTION. 15 



^ 11 mai] 
people, ail 
ofldffasif 

tesj nil 
ivbre m 
Ik Udts 
onwealtkj 



did regalia, and the long array of societies, with music, 
^banners, and badges. 

^^3i Above the orator was the blue dome of the heavens; 
lat his feet, the soil which patriot blood had consecrated 
in the shock of battle. What more fortunate conditions 

i can be conceived, for lifting the sj^eaker to the highest 
fervor of eloquence? It was as if all influences of earth 
^and sky, of man and nature, had conspired with the eager 

ssifdesire of patriotic citizens, to quicken the soul of Web- 
ster, and to furnish him with every aid by which the 
:cre-ative force of his genius might rise to altitudes never 
known before. 

'■ ISTot, as on the occasion of his second oration, at the 
completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, did the eye 
eclimb upward, along the broad sides of the towering 



t material fgranite shaft, to behold its massive capstone midway 



prosperlti 
lead til 
ling post 
st nation 

idant cit 
ht degi8 
ides wi 
plaiid li 



iir splfJ 



between the heavens and the earth; but, at least, the 
'orator's downward glance might behold the beginning of 
■that stately structure, in the corner stone at his feet, wliile 
his imagination, kindling at the sight, could easily build 
the column and weave about it the glories of the day it 
would commemorate. 

He also had before him, at the time of this first oration, 
'a large number of the survivors of the war, and was stimu- 
Elated by the need of arousing popular enthusiasm in the 
project of erecting the costly structure which the Associa- 
tion had in hand, and which was dear to his own heart as 
president of that Association. This project of erecting 
the monument by voluntary subscriptions from the people 



16 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

must not be forgotten in tlie analysis of the oration which 
will be' made further on. It was present to Webster's 
mind during the preparation of his oration, as well as in 
the ardor of its delivery. 

If much was expected of the orator, much more did he 
give. Over-modest concerning his own powers at that, 
early date in his career, he had asked a friend to listen 
beforehand to a draft of the speech which he had written. 
But when that speech, with the speaker's impressive per- 
sonality and eloquent delivery added to it, was given to 
the vast throngs that hung upon his lips, the best judges 
pronounced it perfect; and it remains as it was written, 
enduring as the monument, which owes, in some measure 
at least, its completion to the words which were spoken 
on that day. 

III. 

We come now to a consideration of the rhetorical and 
elocutionary elements which make this first oration at 
Bunker Hill a masterpiece of oratory. 

It is important that the youth, and especially the young 
men of America, in whose hands this speech is now placed 
for their study, should know the oratorical principles 
which guided the speaker, and which enabled him to 
make it a perfect work of art. Spontaneous utterances, 
sometimes called "extemporary speaking," are generally 
failures, unless (as one has said) "there is a steady, 
intellectual growth, culminating, by severe logical pro- 
cess, in grand, consistent, and permanent excellence, the 



INTKODUCTION. 17 

fruit of learning and study as well as a sort of inspiration." 
" The famous speeches of Daniel Webster, " continues the 
same writer, "were all the result of previous profound 
meditation, although apparently extempore; and so, prob- 
ably, were the orations of Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke, 
and Canning. The great masters of pulpit power, as a 
general thing, either wrote their sermons — like Chalmers, 
Bushnell, Park, and Spring — or committed them to mem- 
ory, like Binney and Hall. Under any circumstances 
there must be laborious preparation, unless a man is a 
prodigy like Beecher." All other so-called extempore 
speaking is apt to be "the knack of uttering words." 

Whether Webster first wrote out all his speeches in 
full and then committed them to memory, or not, is 
uncertain. There are men with the ability to remember, 
word for word, sentence by sentence, any speech which 
they have written or which has been framed in the mind. 
But with regard to the oration which is now under con- 
sideration, it is absolutely in evidence that it was com- 
posed with deliberation and written down by the author's 
own hand. 

There is another question in relation to this speech. 
Was it conceived, with certain well-known principles of 
the art of oratory in mind? Or did the orator follow the 
trained habit of adjusting ideas and words, in natural and 
logical sequence, which he had acquired by the study of 
the finest models of eloquence, in ancient and modern 
times? 

It makes little difference which of these assumptions we 



18 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

accept in the case before us. We know that Webster's 
mind had been laboriously exercised in logical and 
structural thinking; that he had accepted as his teachers 
in oratory the great masters of the art, for we trace their 
influence in the orations which he delivered. We also 
know that, at least in one instance which is on record 
(his first participation in the debate with Hayne in the 
Senate Chamber at Washington), no elaborate preparation 
conld have been made by him, as the speech of Mr. Hayne 
was delivered on the afternoon of the previous day. It 
was not, however, till nearly a week afterwards that the 
more memorable speech in reply to Hayne, which is one 
of Webster's most famous discourses, was delivered, — 
ample time for preparation having thus been obtained. 

There can be no doubt from all the evidence in our pos- 
session, that, while Mr. Webster's genius could rise, on 
the spur of the moment, to exalted flights of oratory, yet 
his best and most sullime utterances were the result of 
his mind's laborious contemplation. Thus genius always 
pays homage to severe and sustained intellectual industry. 

In studying this first oration at Bunker Hill, let the 
students first read it as a whole; let them be stirred by 
its patriotic sentiments and its glowing periods. But no 
less important is it for them, as students in elocution, to 
discover the orator's art in the composition of the work. 
They must comprehend the subtle arrangement of parts; 
the delicate handling of topics; the mental reservations; 
and the choice of words and figures. Then they will see 
how the great orator wove together in harmonious propor- 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

tions the true and the sublime, the pathetic and the 
heroic; how, by his trained intellect and fervid spirit, 
the structure of the speech was wrought out, as the result 
of his settled purpose to master and perfect that gift of 
oratorical expression which he felt that he possessed. 

Daniel Webster was forty-two years old and in the 
prime of his manhood when he gave this oration on 
Bunker Hill. With matured intellectual powers, he had. 
already won the laurels of an orator in public speaking. 
This, his forensic discourse in the Dartmouth College 
case and his oration at Plymouth, on the first settlement 
of New England, amply prove. His audience (as we have 
shown) had confidence in his abilities, and were filled 
with enthusiasm over the event he was to commemorate; 
the spot was historic, the day serene; and among his 
auditors were distinguished people, Lafayette being the 
most famous of them all. The presence of the veterans 
was itself an inspiration. We have repeated these favor- 
ing conditions, to give force to the important statement 
that the orator had them all in his mind when he was 
preparing and writing his speech. 

His magnificent presence, lofty brow, piercing eyes, 
strong mouth, and large stature caused a thrill to run 
through the multitude as he stood before them. The 
transcendent interest of the occasion completed the cir- 
cumstances under which he was to speak. 

1. But at the very o|)ening of his speech he must touch 
the right chord, and satisfy the expectations of his auditors. 
This he does, by a natural and at the same time shrewd 



20 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

appeal to the poiver of local association. The place, the 
anniversary after half a century, the importance of the 
event commemorated, as seen in the present prosperity of 
the nation as its result, these are made prominent at the 
outset. The audience responds, and their interest is 
immediately enlisted in what is to follow. 

2. The purpose for which the assembly is convened is 
then announced. It is the keynote of the oration, and 
must not be delayed. 

That purpose is not merely the appropriate laying of 
the corner stone, but the arousing of sustained resolution 
and enthusiasm for the completion of the monument, as 
a gift by the nation in voluntary offerings, gratefully and 
cheerfully bestowed. This purpose must be kept in mind 
during the analytic examination of the entire speech. 
The orator does not for a moment lose sight of it. 

He concedes the fact (see Oration, page 34) that "the 
record of illustrious actions is most safely deposited in 
the universal remembrance of mankind," and yet he 
claims, as an adequate reason for rearing the monument, 
"that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and 
importance of that event (the battle) to every class and 
age " ; the ignorant beholder and the youngest schoolboy 
must see, each for himself, the visible embodiment of a 
nation's remembrance. Thus is placed before the present 
assembly, and spread broadcast before the whole people 
of the Eepublic, the noble idea of treasuring up the 
inspirations of the great anniversary, and making them 
effective for the purpose it was designed to further. 



INTRODUCTION. 2l 

Now the way is clear for argument and appeal, by 
which that purpose may be reenforced and assent to it be 
won. This part of the oration is concluded (page 35) by 
the glowing and picturesque sentence: "Let it rise! let 
it rise till it meet the sun in his coming! let the earli- 
est light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger 
and play on its summit ! " Thus is the picture of the 
finished structure indelibly impressed upon the minds of 
all. 

Immediately the orator proceeds from the secondary to 
the larger reasons which call for the popular assent to 
the purpose of the day. 

3. The blessings wJiich surround the citizens of the Be- 
imhlic, as the result of their forefathers' courage and 
sacrifices, are set forth to awaken gratitude and a sense 
of obligation. Even the "brightened prospects of the 
world" are invoked, to heighten the effect produced by 
the orator's enumeration of the privileges and blessings 
enjoyed by those whose lot is cast in this favored land. 

4. The power of this appeal to the liberal spirit of 
the age is enhanced by an immediate reference to the sur- 
vivors of the battle and to the veterans of the Revolution, 
whom the orator addresses in impassioned words. Their 
sacrifices are made real by a brief, but vivid, description 
of the battle itself, on the very spot consecrated to Lib- 
erty. This felicitous presentation of the claims of the 
veterans to lasting remembrance and honor, is made still 
more effective by the introduction of an . apostrophe to 
Warren (page 38), as if the patriot soldier were himself, 



22 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

at the moment, looking down upon the pageant and into 
the faces of the "venerable men," some of whom he might 
have led in that heroic day of conflict. 

The presence of Lafayette afforded the opportunity to 
call him, also, as a witness whose silent testimony might 
favor the orator's purpose and create an abiding interest 
in its fulfillment. 

These parenthetical allusions to the battle and to 
Lafayette were managed (if Ave may use this term, in 
our calm analysis of the oration as a work of art) with 
consummate skill. The orator saved himself the neces- 
sity of a prolonged story of the fight, familiar to his 
hearers, by directing chief attention to the causes which 
led to the event on Bunker Hill, the lofty patriotism it 
evoked from one end of the country to the other, and the 
important consequences which flowed from it as the first 
real battle of the Eevolution. 

Among these results was an increase of foreign sym- 
pathy for the struggling colonists; and now, with great 
tact, by a graceful turn, Lafayette is brought forward as 
a foreign friend whose sympathy led him to join the colo- 
nists in their effort to be free from the English yoke. 
Lafayette is also called "fortunate" in being present at 
the laying of the corner stone of the monument, another 
subtle but potent argument for the completion of the 
structure, which the orator constantly keeps in mind. 

5. The reappearance at this point of the orator's allu- 
sion to great changes for good during the half-century just 
past, is an apt and skillful inethod for confirming his 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

auditors' confidence in their free institutions. This con- 
fidence will lead to the desire to perpetuate those insti- 
tutions, and, incidentally, to assist in the purpose which 
brought them together on that auspicious day. 

This recurrence to the thoughts on the theme intro- 
duced earlier in the discourse is for a somewhat different 
purpose from that which those thoughts served in the first 
instance. They are repeated here, and their enumeration 
is enlarged, to enhance the force of the speaker's appeal 
to the hearer's sense of obligation. He exhibits now, for 
the first time in the oration, the superiority of American 
Republicanism and the glory of a free government " by 
the people and for the people." 

Incidentally, and as if the reference forced itself upon 
his mind, the orator alludes to the Greeks struggling for 
their independence and to revolutions in South America, 
intending to create a sympathetic feeling for those peo- 
ples, but chiefly to show, by contrast, how much more the 
citizens of the United States have to be thankful for 
than any other nation on the earth. 

6. The transition is now easy to the conclusion (page 
52), in which the orator strives to impress upon his 
auditors and the inhabitants of the whole favored land, 
the duties they owe: duties incumbent upon them as the 
inheritors of the precious legacy of liberty, purchased by 
the blood and bequeathed by the courage and the endur- 
ance of their fathers. 

" Let the sacred obligations which have devolved on 
this generation and on us sink deep into our hearts. . . . 



24 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

We can win no laurels in a war for independence, . . . 
but there remains to us a great duty of defense and 
preservation." 

The last sentence of the peroration returns again, by a 
subtle oratorical device, to the subject of the monument, 
set forth in a figure, but none the less suggestive because 
indirect: "Let our object be ^our country, our whole 
country, and nothing but our country.' And by the 
blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast 
and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, 
but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the 
world may gaze with admiration forever." 

The art of the orator is seen in the enunciation of the 
noblest sentiments and the enforcing of the grandest 
motives, with an eloquence which seems to place the 
mere erection of the monument in the background; while 
in reality the object of the meeting, to create a public 
feeling of interest in favor of the structure to be reared 
upon the corner stone that day set in its place, is never 
for an instant forgotten. 

We have, then, in this oration, in a general way, the 
model of what a speech should be in its construction and 
in the adjustment of its several parts. First, the intro- 
duction, or prelude, to awaken- and engage the attention 
of the audience; next, the proposition, or statement of 
the purpose of the discourse; then, the arguments which 
commend or prove the subject-matter, with such appeals 
to the intellect or the emotions as may be appropriate to 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

the theme 5 after this, a summing up, or recapitulation; 
and, finally, the peroration, which gives a short and com- 
prehensive conclusion, deduced from the arguments, with 
an exhortation or appeal to the auditors that shall re- 
mind them of the proposition and leave upon their minds 
a sense of obligation, or desire, to accept and act upon it. 

With such changes of form, or relations, as the circum- 
stances under which an oration is given, or the subject, 
may require, this arrangement will allow full play to 
all the elements, qualities, and essentials of oratorical 
speech. 

The genius of the orator has ample scope, within the 
limits of this structural arrangement, for felicity of style, 
aptness of imagery, and effectiveness of persuasion. 

A. S. T. 
Newton, January 4, 1897. 



TEN CELEBRATED SPEECHES OF 
DANIEL WEBSTER. 



The Dartmouth College Case. 

Trustees of Dartmouth College vs. Woodward. Before the Supreme 
Court of the United States, March 10, 1818. 

The Plymouth Oration. 

The First Settlement of New England. Plymouth, Mass., Decemher 
22, 1820. 

The Greek Revolution. 

Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 19, 1824. 

First Bunker Hill Oration. 

At the laying of the Corner Stone of the Monument, June 17, 1825. 

Reply to Hayne. 

On Foote's Resolution. In the United States Senate, January 20, 1830. 

Eulogy on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. 
In FaneuilHall, Boston, Mass., January 26, 1830. 

Eulogy on Washington. 

Centennial Birthday Anniversary. At Washington, D.C., February 
22, 1832. 

Reply to Calhoun. 

In the United States Senate, February 16, 1833. 

Second Bunker Hill Oration. 

On the Completion of the Monument, June 17, 1843. 

Seventh of March Speech. 

The Compromises of the Constitution. Delivered in the United States 
Senate, March 7, 1850. 

27 



'^^^ 



THE ORATION 



WITH NOTES 



*^^ 
^ 



THE NOTES. 

The Notes are placed at the end of the oration, that the reader 
may not be interrupted in tlie reading of tlie speech. They give 
sufficient information concerning tlie allusions in the text, and indi- 
cate further reading and research to the student, in the historical and 
other lines of study suggested by the oration. 

Particular attention is called to the aid given by these Notes in 
understanding the oratorical and elocutionary method of the speaker. 



WEBSTEE'S FIRST ORATION 

ON THE 

BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 



j-i^c 



This uncounted multitude before me and around me 
proves the feeling wliicli tlie occasion has excited. These 
thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, 
and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned rever- 
ently to heaven in this spacious temple of the firmameiit, 5 
proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose of oul\ 
assembling have made a deep impression on our hearts.^ 

If, indeed, there be anything in local association fit to 
affect the mind of man, we need not strive to repress the 
emotions which agitate us here.^ We are among the sepul- 10 
chres of our fathers. We are on ground distinguished 
by their valor, their constancy, and the shedding of their 
blood. ^Ve are here, not to fix an uncertain date in our 
annals, nor to draw into notice an obscure and unknown 
spot. If our humble purpose had never been conceived, if 15 
we ourselves had never been born, the 17th of June, 1775, 
would have been a day on which all subsequent bistoury 
would have poured its light, and the eminence where we 
stand a point of attraction to the eyes of successive genera- 
tions. But we are Americans. We live in what may be 20 
called the early age of this great continent; and we know 
that our posterity, through all time, are here to enjoy and 

31 



32 Webster's first oration 

suffer the allotments of humanity. We see before us a 
probable train of great events ; we know that our own for- 
tunes have been happily cast; and it is natural, therefore, 
that we should be moved by the contemplation of occurrences 

5 which have guided our destiny before many of us were born, 
and settled the condition in which we should pass that por- 
tion of our existence which God allows to men on earth. 

We do not read even of the discovery of this continent 
without feeling something of a personal interest in the 

10 event; without being reminded how much it has affected 
our own fortunes and our own existence. It would be still 
more unnatural for us, therefore, than for others, to con- 
template with unaffected minds that interesting, I may say 
that most touching and pathetic, scene when the great dis- 

15 coverer of America stood on the deck of his shattered bark, 
the shades of night falling on the sea, yet no man sleeping ; 
tossed on the billows of an unknown ocean, yet the stronger 
billows of alternate hope and despair tossing his own 
troubled thpughts ; extending forward his harassed frame, 

20 straining westward his anxious and eager eyes, till Heaven 
at last granted him a moment of rapture and ecstasy, in 
blessing his vision with the sight of the unknown world. ^ 

Nearer to our times, more closely connected with our 
fates, and therefore still more interesting to our feelings 

25 and affections, is the settlement of our own country by 
colonists from England.^ We cherish every memorial of 
these worthy ancestors; we celebrate their patience and 
fortitude ; we admire their daring enterprise ; we teach our 
children to venerate their piety; and we are justly proud 

30 of being descended from men who have set the world an 
example of founding civil institutions on the great and 
united principles of human freedom and human knowledge. 
To us, their children, the story of their labors and suffer- 
ings can never be Avithout its interest. We shall not stand 



ON THE JJ LINKER HILL MONUMENT. 33 

unmoved on the shore of Plymouth while the sea continues 
to wash it; nor will our brethren in another early and 
ancient Colony forget the place of its first establishment 
till tlieir river shall cease to flow by it.^ No vigor of 
youth, no maturity of manhood, will lead the nation to for- 5 
get the spots where its infancy was cradled and defended. 
But the great event in the history of the continent, which 
Ave are now met here to commemorate, that prodigy of 
modern times, at once the wonder and the blessing of the 
world, is the American E-evolution. In a day of extraordi- lo 
nary prosperity and happiness, of high national honor, dis- 
tinction, and power, we are brought together, in this place, 
by our love of country, by our admiration of exalted char- 
acter, by our gratitude for signal services and patriotic 
devotion. 15 

The Society whose organ I am ^ was formed for the pur- 
pose of rearing some honorable and durable monument to 
the memory of the early friends of American Independence.^ 
They have thought, that for this object no time could be 
more propitious than the present prosperous and peaceful 20 
period; that no place could claim preference over this 
memorable spot; and that no day could be more auspicious 
to the undertaking than the anniversary of the battle which 
was here fought. The foundation of that monument we 
have now laid. With solemnities suited to the occasion, 25 
with prayers to Almighty God for his blessing, and in the 
midst of this cloud of witnesses, we have begun the work. 
We trust it will be prosecuted, and that, springing from a 
broad foundation, rising high in massive solidity and un- 
adorned grandeur, it may remain as long as Heaven per- v>0 
mits the works of man to last, a fit emblem, both of the 
events in memory of which it is raised, and of the gratitude 
0/ those who have reared it. 



34 Webster's first oration 

We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions 
is most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of 
mankind. We know, that if we could cause this structure 
to ascend, not only till it reached the skies but till it 
5 pierced them, its broad surfaces could still contain but part 
of that which, in an age of knowledge, hath already been 
spread over the earth, and which history charges itself with 
making known to all future times. We know that no 
inscription on entablatures less broad than the earth itself 

10 can carry information of the events we commemorate where 

it' has not already gone; and that no structure, which shall 

not outlive the duration of letters and knowledge among 

]nen, can prolong the memorial. But our object is, by this 

. edifice, to show our own deep sense of the value and impor- 

15 tance of the achievements of our ancestors; and, by pre- 
senting this work of gratitude to the eye, to keep alive 
similar sentiments, and to foster a constant regard for the 
principles of the Kevolution. Human beings are composed 
not of reason only, but of imagination also and sentiment; 

20 and that is neither wasted nor misapplied which is appro- 
priated to the purpose of giving right direction to senti- 
ments, and opening proper springs of feeling in the heart. 
Let it not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate 
national hostility, or even to cherish a mere military spirit. 

25 It is higher, purer, nobler.^ We consecrate our work to 
the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the 
light of peace may rest upon it forever. We rear a memo- 
rial of our conviction of that unmeasured benefit which has 
been conferred on our own land, and of the happy influences 

30 which have been produced, by the same events, on the gen- 
eral interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, to 
mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our pos- 
terity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall 
turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is. not un^tiis- 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMEliJ^. 35 

tiiiguished where the first great battle of the Eevolution 
was fought. We wish that this structure may proclaim 
the magnitude and importance of that event to every class 
and every age. We wish that infancy may learn the pur- 
pose of its erection from maternal lips, and that weary and 5 
withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollec- 
tions which it suggests. We wish that labor may look up 
here, and be proud, in the midst of its toil. We wish that, 
in those days of disaster, which, as they come upon all 
nations, must be expected to come upon us also, desponding 10 
patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured 
that the foundations of our national power are still strong. 
We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among 
the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, 
may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feel- 15 
'ing of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that 
the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native 
shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be 
something which shall remind him of the liberty and the 
glory of his country. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet 20 
the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning 
gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit. ^ 

We live in a most extraordinary age.^ Events so various 
and so important that they might crowd and distinguish 
centuries are, in our times, compressed within the compass 25 
of a single life. When has it happened that history has 
had so much to record in the same term of years as since 
the 17th of June, 1775? Our own Eevolution, which, under 
other circumstances, might itself have been expected to occa- 
sion a war of half a century, has been achieved ; twenty-four 30 
sovereign and independent States erected; and a general 
government established over them, so safe, so wise, so free, 
so practical, that we might well wonder its establishment 
should have been accomplished so soon, were it not far the 



36 WEBSTER'S FIRST ORATION 

greater wonder that it should have been established at all. 
Two or three millions of people have been augmented to 
twelve,^ the great forests of the West prostrated beneath 
the arm of successful industry, and the dwellers on the 
5 banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi become the fellow- 
citizens and neighbors of those who cultivate the hills of 
New England. We have a commerce, that leaves no sea 
unexplored ; navies, which take no law from superior force ; ^ 
revenues, adequate to all the exigencies of government, al- 
io most without taxation; and peace with all nations, founded 
on equal rights and mutual respect. 

Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a 
mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the in- 
dividual condition and happiness of almost every man, has 
15 shaken to the centre her political fabric, and dashed against 
one another thrones which had stood tranquil for ages.^ On 
this, our continent, our own example has been followed, and 
colonies have sprung up to be nations. Unaccustomed 
sounds of ^liberty and free government have reached us 
20 from beyond the track of the sun ; and at this moment the 
dominion of European power in this continent, from the 
place where we stand to the south pole, is annihilated for- 
ever.* 

In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has 
25 been the general progress of knowledge, such the improve- 
ment in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and^ 
above all, in liberal ideas and the general spirit of the age, 
that the whole world seems changed.^ 

Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a faint abstract of 
30 the things which have happened since the day of the battle 
of Bunker Hill, we are but iifty years removed from it ; and 
we now stand here to enjoy all the blessings of our own 
condition, and to look abroad on the brightened prospects of 
the world, while we still have among us some of those who 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 37 

were active agents in the scenes of 1775, and who are now 
here, from every quarter of New England, to visit once 
more, and under circumstances so affecting, I had almost 
said so overwhelming, this renowned theatre of their 
courage and patriotism. n 

Venerable men ! ^ you have come down to us from a 
former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out 
your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are 
now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with 
your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, lo 
in the strife for your country. Behold, how altered ! The 
same heavens are indeed over your heads ; the same ocean 
rolls at your feet; but all else, how changed! You hear 
now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of 
smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestowft. The 15 
ground strewed with the dead and the dying ; the impetuous 
charge; the steady and successful repulse; the loud call 
to repeated assault ; the summoning of all that is manly to 
repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely and fear- 
lessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may 20 
be in war and death ; — all these you have witnessed, but 
you witness them no more. All is peace. The heights 
of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you 
then saw filled with wives and children and countrymen in 
distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions 25 
for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with 
the sight of its whole happy population, come out to wel- 
come and greet you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud 
ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the 
foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, 30 
are not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own 
means of distinction and defence. All is peace; and God 
has granted you this sight of your country's happiness ere 



38 Webster's first oration 

you slumber in the grave. He has allowed you to behold 
and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils ; and he 
has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, 
and in the name of the present generation, in the name of 

5 your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you ! ^ 

But, alas ! yon are not all here ! Time and the sword 
have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, 
Eead, Pomeroy, Bridge ! our eyes seek for you in vain amid 
this broken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and 

10 live only to your country in her grateful remembrance and 
your own bright example. But let us not too much grieve 
that you have met the common fate of men. You lived at 
least long enough to know that your work had been nobly 
and successfully accomplished. Yon lived to see your coun- 

15 try's independence established, and to sheathe your swords 

from war. On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light 

of Peace, like 

"another morn, 

Risen on mid-noon " ; 2 . 

20 and the sky on which you closed your eyes was cloudless. 

But ah ! Him ! ^ the first great martyr in this great cause ! 

Him ! the premature victim of his own self-devoting heart ! 

Him ! the head of our civil councils, and the destined leader 

of our military bands, whom nothing brought hither but the 

25 unquenchable fire of his own spirit ! Him ! cut off by Provi- 
dence in the hour of overwhelming anxiet}^ and thick gloom ; 
falling ere he saw the star of his country rise ; pouring out 
his generous blood like water, before he knew whether it 
would fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage ! — how 

30 shall I struggle with the emotions that stifle the utterance of 
thy name ! Our poor work may perish; but thine shall en- 
dure ! This monument may moulder away ; the solid ground 
it rests upon may sink down to a level with the sea ; bnt thy 
memory shall not fail ! Wheresoever among men a heart 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 39 

shall be found tliat beats to tlie transports of patriotism and 
liberty, its aspirations sliall be to claim kindred with tliy 
spirit ! 

But the scene amidst which we stand does not permit us 
to confine oui* thoughts or our sympathies to those fearless 5 
spirits who hazarded or lost their lives on this consecrated 
spot. We have the happiness to rejoice here in the pres- 
ence of a most worthy representation of the survivors of the 
v/hole Revolutionary army. 

Veterans ! you are the remnant of many a well-fought lo 
field. You bring with you marks of honor from Trenton 
and Monmouth, from Yorktown, Camden, Bennington, and 
Saratoga.^ Veterans of half a century! when in your 
youthful days you put everything at hazard in your coun- 
try's cause, good as that cause was, and sanguine as youth 15 
is, still your fondest hopes did not stretch onward to an 
hour like this ! At a period to which you could not reasona- 
bly have expected to arrive, at a moment of national pros- 
perity such as you could never have foreseen, you are now 
met here to enjoy the fellowship of old soldiers, and to 20 
receive the overflowings of a universal gratitude. 

But your agitated countenances and your heaving breasts 
inform me that even this is not an unmixed joy. I perceive 
that a tumult of contending feelings rushes upon you. The 
images of the dead, as well as the persons of the living, 25 
X3resent themselves before you. The scene overwhelms you, 
and I turn from it. May the Father of all mercies smile 
upon your declining years, and bless them ! And when you 
shall here have exchanged your embraces, when you shall 
once more have pressed the hands which have been so often 30 
extended to give succor in adversity, or grasped in the exul- 
tation of victory, then look abroad upon this lovely land 
which your young valor defended, and mark the happiness 
with which it is filled; yea, look abroad upon the whole 



40 avebster's fikst oration 

earth, and see what a name you have contributed to give to 
your country, and what a praise you have added to free- 
dom, and then rejoice in the sympathy and gratitude which 
beam upon your last days from the improved condition of 
5 mankind ! ^ 

The occasion does not require of me any particular account 
of the batfcle of the 17th of June, 1775, nor any detailed 
narrative of the events which immediately preceded it. 
These are familiarly known to all.^ In the progress of the 

10 great and interesting controversy, Massachusetts and the 
town of Boston had become early and marked objects of 
the displeasure of the British Parliament. This had been 
manifested in the act for altering the government of the 
Province, and in that for shutting up the port of Boston. 

15 Nothing sheds more honor on our early his-tory, and nothing 
better shows how little the feelings and sentiments of the 

,_,: Colonies were known or regarded in England, than the im- 
pression which these measures everywhere produced in 
America.'"' It had been anticipated, that, while the Colo- 

20 nies in general would be terrified by the severity of the 
punishment inflicted on Massachusetts, the other seaports 
would be governed by a mere spirit of gain ; and that, as 
Boston was now cut off from all commerce, the unexpected 
advantage which this blow on her was calculated to confer 

25 on other towns would be greedily enjoyed. How miserably 
such reasoners deceived themselves ! How little they knew 
of the depth, and the strength, and the intenseness of that 
feeling of resistance to illegal acts of power, which possessed 
the whole American people ! Everywhere the unworthy 

30 boon was rejected with scorn. The fortunate occasion was 
seized everywhere, to show to the whole world that the 
Colonies were swayed by no local interest, no partial inter- 
est, no selhsli interest. The temptation to profit by the 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 41 

punisliment of Boston was strongest to our neighbors of 
Salem. ^ Yet Salem was precisely the place where this mis- 
erable proft'er was spurned in a tone of the most lofty self- 
respect and the most indignant patriotism. " We are deeply 
affected," said its inhabitants, •' with the sense of our pub- 5 
lie calamities ; but the miseries that are now rapidly has- 
tening on our brethren in the capital of the Province greatly 
excite our commiseration. By shutting up the port of Bos- 
ton, some imagine that the course of trade might be turned 
hither, and to our benefit ; but we must be dead to every lo 
idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we 
indulge a thought to seize on wealth and raise our fortunes 
on the ruin of our suffering neighbors." These noble senti- 
ments were not confined to our immediate vicinity. In that 
day of general affection and brotherhood, the blow given to 15 
Boston smote on every patriotic heart from one end of the 
country to the other. Virginia and the Carolinas, as well 
as Connecticut and New Hampshire, felt and proclaimed 
the cause to be their own. The Continental Congress, then 
holding its first session in Philadelphia, expressed its sym- 20 
pathy for the suffering inhabitants of Boston, and addresses 
were received from all quarters, assuring them that the 
cause was a common one, and should be met by common 
efforts and common sacrifices. The Congress of Massachu- 
setts responded to these assurances ; and in an address to 25 
the Congress at Philadelphia, bearing the official signature, 
perhaps among the last, of the immortal Warren, .notwith- 
standing the severity of its suffering and the magnitude of 
the dangers which threatened it, it w^as declared, that this 
Colony " is ready, at all times, to spend and to be spent in 30 
the cause of America." 

But the hour drew nigh which was to put professions to 
the proof, and to determine whether the authors of these 
mutual pledges were ready to seal them in blood. The 



42 Webster's first oration 

tidings of Lexington and Concord had no sooner spread, 
than it was universally felt that the time was at last come 
for action. A spirit pervaded all ranks, not transient, not 
boisterous, but deep, solemn, determined, 

5 " totamque infusa per artus 

Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet." i 

War, on their own soil and at their own doors, was, indeed, 
a strange work to the yeomanry of New England ; but their 
consciences were convinced of its necessity, their country 

10 called them to it, and they did not withhold themselves 
from the perilous trial. The ordinary occupations of life 
were abandoned ; the plough was staid in the unfinished 
furrow; wives gave up their husbands, and mothers gave 
up their sons, to the battles of a civil war. Death might 

15 come, in honor, on the field ; it might come, in disgrace, on 
the scaffold. For either and for both they were prepared. 
The sentiment of Quincy was full in their hearts. " Blan- 
dishments," said that distinguished son of genius and patri- 
otism, " will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a halter 

20 intimidate ; for, under God, we are determined that, where- 
soever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make 
our exit, we will die free men." ^ 

The 17th of June saw the four New England Colonies 
standing here, side by side, to triumph or to fall together ; 

25 and there was with them from that moment to the end of 
the war, what I hope will remain with them forever : one 
cause, one country, one heart. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with the most 
important effects beyond its immediate results as a military 

30 engagement. It created at once a state of open, public war. 
There could now be no longer a question of proceeding 
against individuals, as guilty of treason or rebellion. That 
fearful crisis was past. The appeal lay to the sword ; and 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 43 

the only question was, Avhetlier tlie spirit and tiie resources 
of the people would hold out till the object should be ac- 
complished. Nor were its general consequences confined to 
our own country. The previous proceedings of the Colonies, 
their appeals, resolutions, and addresses, had made their 5 
cause known to Europe. Without boasting, we may say, 
that in no age or country has the public cause been main- 
tained with more force of argument, more power of illustra- 
tion, or more of that persuasion which excited feeling and 
elevated principle can alone bestow, than the Revolutionary 10 
state papers exhibit.^ These papers will forever deserve to 
be studied, not only for the spirit which they breathe, but 
for the ability Avith which they were Avritten. 

To this able vindication of their cause, the Colonies had 
now added a practical and severe proof of their own true i^> 
devotion to it, and given evidence also of the power which 
they could bring to its support. All now saw, that if 
America fell, she would not fall without a struggle. Men 
felt sympathy and regard, as well as surprise, when they 
beheld these infant states, remote, unknown, unaided, en- 20 
counter the power of England, and, in the first considerable 
battle, leave more of their enemies dead on the field, in 
proportion to the number of combatants, than had been 
recently known to fall in the wars of Europe. 

Information of these events, circulating throughout the 25 
world, at length reached the ears of one who now hears me. 
He has not forgotten the emotion which the fame of Bunker 
Hill, and the name of Warren, excited in his youthful 
breast.^ 

Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the establishment 30 
of great public principles of liberty, and to do honor to the 
distinguished dead. The occasion is too severe ^ for eulogy 
of the living. But, Sir, your interesting relation to this 



44 Webster's first oration 

country, the peculiar circumstances which surround you and 
surround us, call on me to express the happiness which 
we derive from your presence and aid in this solemn com- 
memoration. 
5 Fortunate, fortunate man ! with what measure of devotion 
will you not thank God for the circumstances of your ex- 
traordinary life ! You are connected with both hemi- 
spheres and with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain, 
that the electric spark of liberty should be conducted, 

10 through you, from the New World to the Old ; ^ and we, 

• who are now here to perform this duty of patriotism, have 
all of us long ago received it in charge from our fathers 
to cherish your name and your virtues. You will account 
it an instance of your good fortune, Sir, that you crossed 

15 the seas to visit us at a time which enables you to be present 
at this solemnity. You now behold the field, the renoAvn 
of which reached you in the heart of France, and caused a 
thrill in your ardent bosom. You see the lines of the 
little redoubt thrown up by the incredible diligence of 

20 Prescott ; defended, to the last extremity, by his lion- 
hearted valor; and within which the corner stone of our 
monument has now taken its position. You see where 
Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner, McCleary, Moore, 
and other early patriots fell with him. Those who survived 

25 that day, and whose lives have been prolonged to the present 
hour, are now around you. Some of them you have known 
in the trying scenes of the war. Behold ! they now stretch 
forth their feeble arms to embrace you. Behold! they 
raise their trembling voices to invoke 'the blessing of God 

30 on you and yours forever.^ 

Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundation of this 
structure. You have heard us rehearse, with our feeble 
commendation, the names of departed patriots. Monu- 
ments and eulogy belong to the dead. We give them this 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 45 

day to Warren and his associates. On other occasions they 
have been given to your more immediate companions in 
arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Gates, to Sullivan, and 
to Lincoln. We have become reluctant to grant these, our 
highest and last honors, further. We would gladly hold 5 
them yet back from the little remnant of that immortal 
band. Serus in Goelum redeas. Illustrious as are your 
merits, yet far, very far distant be the day, Avhen any 
inscription shall bear your name, or any tongue pronounce 
its eulogy ! ^ lO 

The leading reflection to which this occasion seems to 
invite us, respects the great changes which have happened 
in the fifty years since the battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought.- And it peculiarly marks the character of the 
present age, that, in looking at these changes, and in esti- 15 
mating their effect on our condition, we are obliged to 
consider, not what has been done in our own country only, 
but in others also. In these interesting times, while nations 
are making separate and individual advances in improve- 
ment, they make, too, a common progress; like vessels on 20 
a common tide, propelled by the gales at different rates, 
according to their several structure and management, but 
all moved forward by one mighty current, strong enough to 
bear onward whatever does not sink beneath it. 

A chief distinction of the present day is a community 25 
of opinions and knowledge amongst men in different nations, 
existing in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowledge has, 
in our time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over distance, 
over difference of languages, over diversity of habits, over 
prejudice, and over bigotry. The civilized and Christian 30 
world is fast learning the great lesson, that difference of 
nation does not imply necessary hostility, and that all 
contact need not be war. The whole world is becoming: a 



46 Webster's first oration 

common field for intellect to act in. Energy of mind, 
genius, power, wheresoever it exists, may speak out in any 
tongue, and the world will hear it. A great cord of senti- 
ment and feeling runs through two continents, and vibrates 

5 over both. Every breeze wafts intelligence from country 
to country ; every wave rolls it ; all give it forth, and all in 
turn receive it. There is a vast commerce of ideas ; there 
are marts and exchanges for intellectual discoveries, and a 
wonderful fellowship of those individual intelligences which 

10 make up the mind and opinion of the age. Mind is the 
great lever of all things ; human thought is the process by 
which human ends are ultimately answered ; and the diif ii- 
sion of knowledge, so astonishing in the last half-century, 
has. rendered innumerable minds, variously gifted by nature, 

15 competent to be competitors or fellow-workers on the theatre 
of intellectual operation.^ 

From these causes important improvements have taken 
place in the personal condition of individuals. Generally 
speaking, mankind are not only better fed and better 

20 clothed, but they are able also to enjoy more leisure; they 
possess more refinement and more self-respect. A superior 
tone of education, manners, and habits prevails. This re- 
mark, most true in its application to our own country, is 
also partly true when applied elsewhere.^ It is proved by 

25 the vastly augmented consumption of those articles of manu- 
facture and of commerce which contribute to the comforts 
and the decencies of life ; an augmentation which has far 
outrun the progress of population. And while the unexam- 
pled and almost incredible use of machinery would seem to 

30 supply the place of labor, labor still finds its occupation and 
its reward ; so wisely has Providence adjusted men's wants 
and desires to their condition and their capacity. 

Any adequate survey, however, of the progress niade dur- 
ing the last half-century in the polite and the mechanic arts. 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 47 

ill machinery and manufactures, in commerce and agricul- 
ture, in letters and in science, would require volumes. I 
must abstain wholly from these subjects, and turn for a 
moment to the contemplation of Avhat has been done on the 
great question of politics and government. This is the 5 
master topic of the age ; and during the whole fifty years it 
has intensely occupied the thoughts of men. The nature of 
civil government, its ends and uses, have been canvassed 
and investigated ; ancient opinions attacked and defended ; 
new ideas recommended and resisted, by whatever power lO 
the mind of man could bring to the controversy. From the 
closet and the public halls the debate has been transferred 
to the field ; and the world has been shaken by wars of un- 
exampled magnitude, and the greatest variety of fortune. 
A day of peace has at length succeeded ; and now that the 15 
strife has subsided, and the smoke cleared away, we may 
begin to see what has actually been done, permanently 
changing the state and condition of human society. And, 
without dwelling on particular circumstances, it is most 
apparent, that, from the before-mentioned causes of aug- 20 
mented knowledge and improved individual condition, a 
real, substantial, and important change, has taken place, 
and is taking place, highly favorable, on the whole, to 
human liberty and human happiness. 

The great wheel of political revolution began to move in 25 
America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and safe. 
Transferred to the other continent, from unfortunate but 
natural causes, it received an irregular and violent impulse ; 
it whirled along with a fearful celerity ; till at length, like 
the chariot-wheels in the races of antiquity, it took fire 30 
from the rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward, 
spreading conflagration and terror around.^ 

We learn from the result of this experiment, how fortu- 
nate was our own condition, and how admirably the char- 



48 Webster's first oration 

acter of our people was calculated for setting the great 
example of popular governments. The possession of power 
did not turn the heads of the American people, for they had 
long been in the habit of exercising a great degree of self- 
5 control. Although the paramount authority of the parent 
state existed over them, yet a large field of legislation had 
always been open to our Colonial assemblies. They were 
accustomed to representative bodies and the forms of free 
government; they understood the doctrine of the division 

10 of power among different branches, and the necessity of 
checks on each. The character of our countrymen, more- 
over, was sober, moral, and religious ; and there was little 
in the change to shock their feelings of justice and human- 
ity, or even to disturb an honest prejudice. We had no 

15 domestic! throne to overturn, no privileged orders to cast 
down, no violent changes of property to encounter. In the 
American Revolution, no man sought or wished for more 
than to defend and enjoy his own. None hoped for plun- 
der or for spoil. Capacity was unknown to it ; the axe was 

20 not among the instruments of its accomplishment ; and we 
all know that it could not have lived a single day under 
any well-founded imputation of possessing a tendency ad- 
verse to the Christian religion. 

It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less 

25 auspicious, political revolutions elsewhere, even when well 
intended, have terminated differently. It is, indeed, a great 
achievement, it is the master work of the world, to establish 
governments entirely popular on lasting foundations ; nor is 
it easy, indeed, to introduce the popular principle at all into 

;io governments to which it has been altogether a stranger. It 
cannot be doubted, however, that Europe has come out of 
the contest,^ in which she has been so long engaged, with 
greatly superior knowledge, and, in many respects, in a 
highly improved condition. Whatever benefit has been ac- 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 49 

quired is likely to be retained, for it consists mainly in the 
acquisition of more enlightened ideas. And although king- 
doms and provinces may be wrested from the hands that 
hold them, in the same manner they were obtained ; although 
ordinary and vulgar power may, in human affairs, be lost as 5 
it has been won ; yet it is the * glorious prerogative of the 
empire of knowledge that what it gains it never loses. On 
the contrary, it increases by the multiple of its own power ; 
all its ends become means ; all its attainments, helps to new 
conquests. Its whole abundant harvest is but so much lo 
seed wheat, and nothing has limited, and nothing can limit, 
the amount of ultimate product. 

Under the influence of this rapidly increasing knowledge, 
the people have begun, in all forms of government, to think 
and to reason on affairs of state. Regarding government 15 
as an institution for the public good, they demand a knowl- 
edge of its operations, and a participation in its exercise. A 
call for the representative system, wherever it is not enjoyed, 
and where there is already intelligence enough to estimate 
its value, is perseveringiy made. Where men may speak 20 
out, they demand it ; where the bayonet is at their throats, 
they pray for it. 

When Louis the Fourteenth said : '' I am the state," he 
expressed the essence of the doctrine of unlimited power. 
By the rules of that system, the people are disconnected 25 
from the state ; they are its subjects ; it is their lord. " These 
ideas, founded in the love of power, and long supported by 
the excess and the abuse of it, are yielding, in our age, to 
other opinions ; and the civilized world seems at last to be 
proceeding to the conviction of that fundamental and mani- 30 
fest truth, that the powers of government are but a trust, and 
that they cannot be lawfully exercised but for the good of 
the community. As knowledge is more and more extended, 
this conviction becomes more and more general. Knowl- 



50 Webster's first oration 

edge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and 
power are scattered with all its beams. The prayer of the 
Grecian champion, when enveloped in unnatural clouds and 
darkness, is the appropriate political supplication for the 
5 people of every country not yet blessed with free institu- 
tions : — 

" Dispel this cloud, the hght of heaven restore, 

Give me to see, — and Ajax asks no more." i 

We may hope that the glowing influence of enlightened 

10 sentiment will promote the permanent peace of the world. 
Wars to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast down 
dynasties, and to regulate successions to thrones, which have 
occupied so much room in the history of modern times, if 
not less likely to happen at all, will be less likely to become 

15 general and involve many nations, as the great principle 
shall be more and more established that the interest of the 
world is peace, and its first great statute that every nation 
possesses the power of establishing a government for itself. 
But public opinion has attained also an influence over gov- 

20 ernments which do not admit the popular principle into 
their organization. A necessary respect for the judgment 
of the world operates, in some measure, as a control over 
the most unlimited forms of authority. It is owing, per- 
haps, to this truth that the interesting struggle of the 

25 G-reeks has been suffered to go on so long without a direct 
interference, either to wrest that country from its present 
masters, or to execute the system of pacification by force, 
and, with united strength, lay the neck of Christian and 
civilized Greek at the foot of the barbarian Turk. Let 

30 us thank God that we live in an age when something 
has influence besides the bayonet, and when the sternest 
authority does not venture to encounter the scorching power 
of public reproach. Any attempt of the kind I have men- 
tioned should be met by one universal burst of indignation ; 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 51 

the air of the civilized world ought to be made too warm 
to be comfortably breathed by any one who would hazard 
it.i 

It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that, while, in the ful- 
ness of our country's happiness, we rear this monument to o 
her honor, we look for instruction in our undertaking to a 
country which is now in fearful contest, not for works of art 
or memorials of glory,' but for her own existence. Let her 
be assured that she is not forgotten in the world ; that her 
efforts are applauded, and that constant prayers ascend for lo 
her success. And let us cherish a confident hope for her 
final triumph. If the true spark of religious and civil liberty 
be kindled, it will burn. Human agency cannot extinguish 
it. Like the earth's central fire, it may be smothered for a 
time ; the ocean may overwhelm it ; moimtains may press it 15 
down ; but its inherent and unconquerable force will heave 
both the ocean and the land, and at some time or other, in 
some place or other, the volcano will break out and flame 
up to heaven.- 

Among the great events of the half-century, we must 20 
reckon, certainly, the revolution of South America ; " and we 
are not likely to overrate the importance of that revolution, 
either to the people of the country itself or to the rest of 
the world. The late Spanish colonies, now index:)endent 
states, under circumstances less favorable, doubtless, than 25 
attended our own Revolution, have- yet successfully com- ' 
menced their national existence. They have accomplished 
the great object of establishing their independence ; they 
are known and acknowledged in the world; and although 
in regard to their systems of government, their sentiments 30 
on religious toleration, and their provisions for public in- 
struction, they may have yet much to learn, it must be 
admitted that they have risen to the condition of settled 
and established states more rapidly than could have been 



52 Webster's first oration 

reasonably anticipated. Tliey already furnish an exhilarat- 
ing example of the difference between free governments and 
despotic misrule. Their commerce, at this moment, creates 
a new activity in all the great marts of the world. They 

5 show themselves able, by an exchange of commodities, to 
bear a useful part in the intercourse of nations. 

*A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to prevail ; 
all the great interests of society receive a salutary impulse ; 
and the progress of information not only testifies to an im- 

10 proved condition, but itself constitutes the highest and most 
essential improvement. 

When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence 
of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. 
The thirteen little Colonies of North America habitually 

15 called themselves the " Continent." Borne down by colonial 
subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, these vast regions of 
the South were hardly visible above the horizon. But in 
our day there has been, as it were, a new creation. The 
southern hemisxjhere emerges from the sea. Its lofty moun- 

20 tains begin to lift themselves into the light of heaven ; its 
broad and fertile plains stretch out, in beauty, to the eye of 
civilized man, and at the mighty bidding of the voice of 
political liberty the waters of darkness retire.^ 

And now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the con- 
25 viction of the benefit which the example of our. country has 
produced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom and 
human happiness.^ Let us endeavor to comprehend in all 
its magnitude, and to feel in all its importance, the part 
assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. We 
30 are placed at the head of the system of representative and 
popular governments. Thus far our example shows that 
su.ch governments are compatible, not only with respecta- 
bility and power, but with repose, with peace, with security 



ON THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 53 

of personal rights, with good laws, and a just administra- 
tion. 

We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are 
preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or 
as better suited to existing condition, we leave the prefer- 5 
ence to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, 
that the popular form is practicable, and that with wisdom 
and knowledge men may govern themselves ; and the duty 
incumbent on us is, to preserve the consistency of this 
cheering example, and take care that nothing may weaken lO 
its authority with the world. If, in our case, the represent- 
ative system ultimately fail, jjopular governments must be 
pronounced impossible. No combination of circumstances 
more favorable to the experiment can ever be expected to 
occur. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us ; 15 
and if it should be proclaimed, that our example had become 
an argument against the experiment, the knell of popular 
liberty would be sounded throughout the earth. 

These are excitements to duty ; but they are not sugges- 
tions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is 20 
gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize the be- 
lief that popular governments, though subject to occasional 
variations, in form perhaps not always for the better, may 
yet, in their general character, be as durable and permanent 
as other systems. We know, indeed, that in our country 2") 
any other is impossible. The principle of free governments 
adheres to the American soil. It is embedded in it, immova- 
ble as its mountains. 

And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on 
this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. Those 30 
who established our liberty and our government are daily 
dropping from among us. The great trust now descends to 
new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that which is pre- 
sented to us, as our appropriate object. We can win no 



54 Webster's first oration 

laurels in a war for independence. Earlier and worthier 
hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us 
by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of 
states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to 

5 us a great duty of defence and preservation ; and there is 
opened to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the 
times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improve- 
ment. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day 
of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of 

10 peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth 
its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great 
interests, and see whether we also, in our day and genera- 
tion, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. 
Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In 

15 pursuing the great objects which our condition points out to 
us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual 
feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country.^ Let 
our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. 
Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in 

20 which we are called to act. Let our object be, our country, 

OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. 

And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become 
a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, 
but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the 
25 world may gaze with admiration forever ! ^ 



NOTES. 



Page 31. 1. Extract from the Biographical Memoir of Daniel 
Webster, by Edward Everett. "An address from such an orator as 
Mr. Webster, on such a theme, discoursing upon an occasion of tran- 
scendent interest, and kindling with the enthusiasm of the day and the 
spot, may well be regarded as an intellectual treat of the highest order. 
Happy the eyes that saw that glorious gathering ! Happy the ears 
that heard that heart-stirring strain ! " 

2. For the oratorical construction of this speech, see Introduction, 
"Appeal to local association," page 20. 

Page 32. 1. Read Frescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," Vol. II. 
Chap. XVIII. 

2. Compare Webster's oration at Flymouth, on The First Settle- 
ment of New England. 

Page 33. 1. Reference is here made to the Maryland Colony. 
(Leonard Calvert in the "Ark and Dove," with two hundred colonists, 
March 27, 1634.) See Bancroft's "History of the United States," 
Vol. I. Chap. VII. 

2. The Bunker Hill Monument Association. Formed in 1823. 
Daniel Webster was president of the Association after the death of 
Governor John Brooks, the first president. 

At the laying of the corner stone all the members of the Associa- 
tion were in the procession. Two boys also walked in it, one being 
Fletcher Webster, son of the orator, who died nearly forty years 
afterwards in the service of his country. 

3. Notice here the "Proposition." See Introduction, page 20. 
Page 34. 1. See paper by W. W. Wheildon on "Beacon Hill, The 

Beacon and the Monument," in the "Proceedings of the Bunker Hill 
Monument Association," June 17, 1889, pages 55-59. "It was 
probably the only monument ever erected specially to commemorate 
the American Revolution as an achievement of the patriotic, public- 
spirited, free and independent people of the country.?' 

Page 35. 1. One of the finest rhetorical sentences in the oration. 

65 



56 NOTES. 

2. Notice the " Argument and Appeal " in the orator's presentation 
of his theme. See Introduction, pages 21-23. 

Page 36. 1. By a careful estimate, the United States had, in 
1896, a population of 71,197,652. 

2. The naval force of the United States numbers (in 1897) eight 
battle ships, twenty monitors or coast-defense ships, eighteen cruisers, 
twelve look-out ships or gunboats, and ten torpedo boats. 

3. What thrones seemed to be threatened by the wars of the First 
Napoleon? The complications arising out of the Eastern Question 
should also be noted. 

4. See President Monroe's message to Congress in 1823, and Mr. 
Webster's speech on the Panama Mission in 1826. Also study the 
Venezuelan question (1896) : see President Cleveland's Message, De- 
cember 8, 1896. 

6. Vastly greater changes have occurred since 1825. Por an ac- 
count of scientific, industrial, and other material improvements in the 
last seventy years, read Bryce's "American Commonwealth," Vol. II. 
Chap. CXV. 

The first railway on the Western Continent, from the Quincy quarries, 
was constructed to accelerate the erection of Bunker Hill Monument. 

Page 37. 1. One hundred and ninety veterans of the Revolution, 
of whom forty were survivors of the battle, were at the commemora- 
tion in 1825. Some wore their old fighting equipments, and others the 
scars of honorable wounds. See Frothingham's "Siege of Boston," 
chapter on Bunker Hill Monument. 

Page 38. 1. When Webster gave the oration at the completion of 
the Monument, only one hundred and eight survivors of the Revolu- 
tion remained and were present, among whom were thirteen who were 
in the battle of Bunker Hill. 

2. Milton's "Paradise Lost," Book V. 310. Taken verhatim by 
Wordsworth in his "Prelude," Book VI., from "Paradise Lost.'' 

3. "Him!" a rhetorical license; accusative case without the 
governing verb ; unallowable in narration. Used by the orator here, 
to give emphasis, as if his emotion, later on, when he spoke of 
General Warren, caused him to forget the beginning of the sentence. 
It is more remarkable as a departure from grammatical correctness, 
in this oration, because the speech was written beforehand. 

Page 39. 1. Trenton, December 26, 1776. Hessians made pris- 
oners by Washington, 

Bennington, August 16, 1777. Stark defeats Baum, who was killed. 



NOTES. 57 

Saratoga, October 17, 1777. Burgoyne surrenders to General 
Gates. 

Monmouth Court House, June 28, 1778. General Charles Lee 
rebuked by Washington. The last important conflict in the Northern 
States. 

Camden, August 16, 1780. Gates routed by CornwalHs ; DeKalb 
killed. 

Yorktown, October 19, 1781. The British army under Cornwallis 
surrenders to Washington ; the British fleet, to De Grasse. See 
Mowry's '' History of the United States," § 362. 

Page 40. 1. The orator returns to "the improved condition of 
mankind." He never loses the tliread of his discourse. 

2. For a description of the battle of Bunker Hill, read Bancroft, 
Vol. VII. Chaps. XXXIX. and XL. For an excellent plan of the 
ground, see " Froceedings of the Bunker Hill Monument Associa- 
tion," June 17, 1891, pages 32-34. 

3. For full effect of the battle of Bunker Hill on American Colonies, 
read Richard Frothingham's "The Rise of the Republic of the United 
States," Chapters X. and XL, especially X., pages 415-417. 

Page 41. 1. For an account of the patriotic feeling and action of 
Salem, read address of Hon. F. W. Lincoln, in " Proceedings of Bunker 
Hill Monument Association," June 17, 1885. 

June 17, 1774. The General Court convened in Salem. The 
Royalist Governor of Massachusetts sent a messenger to dissolve the 
assembly. The door was locked, delegates were chosen to organize, 
as it turned out, the First Continental Congress. Then the door was 
opened, and the mandate of the Governor obeyed. 

Page 42. 1. Virgil's "^neid," VI. 726. Burke uses the same 
quotation in his speech on American Taxation. Professor Conington 
translates the passage : 

" A bright intelligence, which darts 
Its influence through the several parts 
And animates the whole." 

2. Josiah Quincy in 1770, with John Adams, defended the soldiers 
who fired upon the mob in King Street, Boston ; an event which is 
called "The Boston Massacre." These stanch patriots felt that 
the soldiers were justified in their action, and determined that they 
should have a fair trial. December 16, 1773, at the Old South 
Meeting House, Quincy made a famous address in connection with 



58 NOTES. 

the "Boston Tea-party." See Mowry's "History of the United 
States," §§ 218-223. 

Page 43. 1. These "Revolutionary State Papers" are embodied 
in the "Journals of Congress," reprinted in 1823 in four volumes. 

2. At this point the orator turned to address General Lafayette, 
who arose and uncovered his head. 

3. " too severe." Would " grave " or " serious " be a better word ? 
Page 44. 1. Lafayette returned to France, after his generous 

services in the Revolution, burning with enthusiasm for liberty. He 
took an active part in the popular movements of 1787, and in 1789 
formed the National Guard. He never lost his love for constitutional 
liberty, and his influence was always on the side of chivalrous assist- 
ance to oppressed peoples. 

2. For skillful use of this parenthetical address to Lafayette, see 
Introduction, page 22. 

Page 45. 1. Notice the delicacy of Webster's allusions to the 
character and services of Lafayette. He is placed with Washington 
and the other most illustrious heroes of the war. He is spoken of as 
worthy of eulogy, which his presence forbids the orator to pronounce. 

An interesting reminiscence of Lafayette may be found in Quincy's 
" Municipal History of Boston " ; Replies of Lafayette to Addresses of 
Welcome at Boston, August 23, and at Charlestown, August 27, 1824. 

2. Compare Webster's summing up of the "great changes" be- 
tween 1775 and 1825, with the "Five American Contributions to 
Civilization " of Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, in 
the Atlantic Monthly, October, 1896. 

Page 46. 1. Read paper on " International Law and Arbitration," 
by Lord Russell, Lord Chief Justice of England, in The Forum, 
October, 1896. 

2. Compare the condition of the people of America in 1825 in 
respect to the economic conditions of living, with the average condi- 
tion of the laboring classes of to-day. 

Page 47. 1. To what does the orator refer as the result of popular 
uprisings in Europe ? Read Taine's "French Revolution," translated 
by T. Durand. 

Page 48. 1. What was the contest out of which Europe had 
come, and to which the orator referred ? For the best condensed 
account, read Professor Wilhelm Miiller's "Political History of 
Recent Times," First Period, 1816-1830, pages 1-101. 

Page 50. 1. What were the conditions under which Ajax uttered 



NOTES. 59 

this prayer to Jupiter ? Why is this an appropriate quotation at this 
point in Webster's speecli ? See " Iliad," Book XVII. (Pope's trans- 
lation.) 

Page 51. 1. The slaughter of Armenians in Turkey and the riots 
in Constantinople (1890), with a strange niertness on the part of 
European governments, offer a significant commentary on this part of 
the oration. "Ever since the Treaty of Vienna, the Great Powers 
have claimed a gradually increasing right to regulate the affairs of the 
Porte." Now, "the Turk and his coadjutors have glutted their cruel 
greed with the blood of thousands of Christian men, women, and 
children. Europe sits quiet and sees the banner of its Christian faith 
trampled under foot and drowned in blood. The Turk is now the ally 
of Russia, etc., etc." Julia Ward Howe, in The Forum, November, 
1896. 

2. The Greek Revolution broke out in 1820. In 1825 brighter pros- 
pects appeared, but in April, 1826, Missolonghi fell after a remarkable 
siege. The heroic defense of this stronghold fired the popular heart 
throughout Europe. Athens fell into the hands of the Turks in 1827, 
but relief was at hand. Russia, England, and France joined forces, 
and October 20, 1827, atNavarino, the combined Turkish and Egyptian 
fleet was annihilated. An hereditary, constitutional monarchy was 
established by the allied sovereigns, with Prince Otho of Bavaria as 
king. Read "The Greek Revolution," Vol. VI., and "Beacon Lights 
of History," by John Lord. See also Webster's speech on the Greek 
Revolution, January 19, 1824. 

3. In Mr. Webster's speech on the Greek Revolution, he refers to 
"the rumored combination of the European Continental sovereigns 
against the newly established free states of South America." To 
what states does he refer? See "Century Cyclopedia of Names," 
Article, South American Revolution. What did Webster say in his 
second oration (1843) at the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument 
about " the ephemeral governments of South America" ? 

Page 52. • 1. Notice the fine imagery of this passage. 

2. The conclusion and peroration. See Introduction, page 23. 

Page 54. 1. Forty-five states, with Alaska, Arizona, Indian 
Territory, New Mexico, and Oklahoma as territories in 1896. Utah 
admitted 1896. See Table of States and Territories, Appendix I., 
Mowry's " History of the United States." 

2. Webster's style of oratory has been compared with that of 
Edvj and Burke. In Professor C. A. Goodrich's "British Eloquence," 



60 NOTES. 

a book which every student should read, the differences between 
Webster and Burke appear in tlie author's description of the English 
statesman and orator. Burke's gait and gestures were awkward. .He 
wore spectacles. His enunciation was vehement and rapid, and his 
Irish accent diminished the effect of his eloquence. In these respects 
he was very different as a speaker from Webster. 

Burke was of necessity didactic. His speeches were more like 
lectures, and he often wearied his audiences. In these particulars he 
was also unlike Webster. 

But in his method, which was admirable ; in his reasonings, which 
were sound ; in his exuberance of fancy, his imagery, and the copious- 
ness of his language, he stands side by side with Webster, both being 
magnificent in the richness and splendor of their eloquence. 



BOOKS TO BE READ OR CONSULTED 

In Connection avitii the Study of Webster's Oration * 

Bancroft's "History of the United States," Vol. I. Chap. VII., Vol. 

VII. Chaps. XXXIX. and XL. 
Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," Vol. II. Chap. XVIII. 
Mowry's "A History of the United States." 
" Reminiscences of Webster." Peter Harvey. 
"Works of Daniel Webster," by Edward Everett. (Biographical 

Memoir.) Vol. I. 
"Memorial of Webster." Addresses by Hillard and Choate. 
" The American Revolution." John Fiske, 
"Essays and Reviews," Vol. I. E. P. Whipple. 
"American Literature." E. P. AVhipple. Webster as a Master of 

Style. 
" Select Speeches of Daniel Webster." A. J. George. 
" Beacon Lights of History." John Lord. "The Greek Revolution." 

Vol. VI. 
"Proceedings of the Bunker Hill Monument Association," 1885, 1889, 

1891. 
"The American Commonwealth." Bryce, 
"The Rise of the Republic." Richard Frothingham, 
"The French Revolution." Taine, translated by Durand. 
"Political History of Recent Times." Miiller. 
" The Siege of Boston." Richard Frothingham. 

* These works can be found in any fairly equipped public library. 

61 



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